What is the term for the audience perception of the speakers competence trustworthiness and dynamism?

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Speaker credibility has its roots in Aristotle’s teachings over 2,000 years ago as he wrote about a speaker’s character, otherwise known as ethos. According to Aristotle, a speaker’s character was just as important as the content of their speech. Ethos, as defined by Aristotle, resides in two areas: character and competence:

• A speaker’s character is related to a speaker’s perceived honesty, sincerity, and concern for the audience’s well-being.
• A speaker’s competence is related to a speaker’s knowledge, experience, and preparedness.

Based on Aristotle’s concept of ethos, speaker credibility can be defined as “the extent to which the audience believes you and your message.” In other  words, speaker credibility comes from your audience, and is based on their perceptions of you. However, credibility is dynamic and can change during your presentation.

Now, you may be wondering if there are factors that can help boost and maintain your credibility with your audiences? The answer is yes! There are factors that can elevate and enhance your credibility:

• Competence. One can enhance the audience’s perception of your competence when you communicate your knowledge, experience, training, or background on the topic on which you are speaking. Some speakers come into their presentations with initial credibility based on their professional credentials, roles/job titles, collateral such as books, and/or well-known achievements. If you don’t have first-hand experience with your topic, citing evidence to support your point of view from recent credible research can demonstrate you are well-informed and enable you to gain your audience’s trust that you know what you are talking about.
• Trustworthiness. When you are speaking, do you have the audience’s best interest at heart? Or are you speaking in your own self-interest? Audiences can tell if you are genuinely interested in their wants and needs. Establishing common ground and demonstrating how your topic is aligned with your audience’s values and beliefs can develop trust between you and your audience members.
• Preparedness. One of the surest ways to build your credibility is through your confident and dynamic delivery of your presentation. Rehearse your material so that you can deliver with fluency and expressiveness. Even if you have initial credibility due to your role or credentials, you can lose credibility with your audience if your delivery fails to meet their expectations.

The biggest take-away here is that we don’t give ourselves credibility. Credibility is built by how much our audience trusts and believes us and our message.

Do you think you are easily persuaded? If you are like most people, you aren’t swayed easily to change your mind about something. Persuasion is difficult because changing views often makes people feel like they were either not informed or ill-informed, which also means they have to admit they were wrong about something. We will learn about nine persuasive strategies that you can use to more effectively influence audience members’ beliefs, attitudes, and values. They are ethos, logos, pathos, positive motivation, negative motivation, cognitive dissonance, appeal to safety needs, appeal to social needs, and appeal to self-esteem needs.  In this excerpt, we will learn about ethos.

Ethos, logos, and pathos were Aristotle’s three forms of rhetorical proof, meaning they were primary to his theories of persuasion. Ethos refers to the credibility of a speaker and includes three dimensions: competence, trustworthiness, and dynamism. The two most researched dimensions of credibility are competence and trustworthiness (Stiff & Mongeau, 2003).

Competence refers to the perception of a speaker’s expertise in relation to the topic being discussed. A speaker can enhance their perceived competence by presenting a speech based in solid research and that is well organized and practiced. Competent speakers must know the content of their speech and be able to effectively deliver that content. Trustworthiness refers to the degree that audience members perceive a speaker to be presenting accurate, credible information in a nonmanipulative way. Perceptions of trustworthiness come from the content of the speech and the personality of the speaker. In terms of content, trustworthy speakers consider the audience throughout the speech-making process, present information in a balanced way, do not coerce the audience, cite credible sources, and follow the general principles of communication ethics. In terms of personality, trustworthy speakers are also friendly and warm (Stiff & Mongeau, 2003).

Dynamism refers to the degree to which audience members perceive a speaker to be outgoing and animated (Stiff & Mongeau, 2003). Two components of dynamism are charisma and energy. Charisma refers to a mixture of abstract and concrete qualities that make a speaker attractive to an audience. Charismatic people usually know they are charismatic because they’ve been told that in their lives, and people have been attracted to them. The dynamism of the speaker can also be seen through their demonstration of goodwill toward the audience, or whether they have the audience's best interests at heart.

Unfortunately, charisma is difficult to intentionally develop, and some people seem to have a naturally charismatic personality, while others do not. Even though everyone can’t embody the charismatic aspect of dynamism, the other component of dynamism, energy, is something that everyone can tap into. Communicating enthusiasm for your topic and audience by presenting relevant content and using engaging delivery strategies such as vocal variety and eye contact can increase your dynamism.

Speakers should strive to appeal to ethos, logos, and pathos within a speech. A speech built primarily on ethos might lead an audience to think that a speaker is full of himself or herself. 

Review of Ethos

1. Ethos relates to the credibility of a speaker. Speakers develop ethos by
   • appearing competent, trustworthy, and dynamic;
   • sharing their credentials and/or relevant personal experience;
   • presenting a balanced and noncoercive argument;
   • citing credible sources;
   • using appropriate language and grammar;
   • being perceived as likable; and
   • appearing engaged with the topic and audience through effective delivery.

Review of Persuasive Strategies

• Ethos. Develops a speaker’s credibility.

“Getting Competent”

Identifying Persuasive Strategies in Mary Fisher’s “Whisper of AIDS” Speech

Mary Fisher’s speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention, “A Whisper of AIDS,” is one of the most moving and powerful speeches of the past few decades. She uses, more than once, all the persuasive strategies discussed in this chapter. The video and transcript of her speech can be found on the American Rhetoric website (www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/maryfisher1992rnc.html). As you watch the speech, answer the following questions:

1. Ethos. List specific examples of how the speaker develops the following dimensions of credibility: competence, trustworthiness, and dynamism.